ISRAEL threatened to deport 26 pilgrims - mainly Irish - yesterday on the
grounds that they are in an "extreme Christian cult" who might commit mass
suicide at the Millennium.

The pilgrims were refused entry at
Haifa and are expected to leave in
the ship that carried them from
Cyprus. Brendan Scannell, Irish
ambassador to Israel, said he had
expressed concern to the Israelis at
the treatment of the pilgrims. Some
had said they were assaulted when
they tried to disembark and were
forced back on board ship.

The Israeli authorities initially
accused the pilgrims of being
members of the American Concerned Christians cult, based in Denver,
Colorado, whose leader, Monte Kim Miller, sees himself as one of the two
witnesses to the end of the world.

Fourteen members of the cult were deported in January, accused of plotting
violent acts on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to bring about the Second
Coming, but no evidence against them was made public.

Linda Menuhin, a police spokesman, said the pilgrims had no connection with
Concerned Christians. She called them members of an extreme cult, although
the only accusations against them are that they look scruffy and apparently
have some handicapped children with them.

They were tracked by a police intelligence unit set up to spot dangerous cults
among the three million tourists expected to visit the Holy Land next year.

In Ireland, a spokesman at the Department of Foreign Affairs said: "There
have been reports of them being members of a cult of some sort but our
understanding is that they're quite well-meaning. They are not cited as a
security risk, although unfortunately the authorities in Israel may have misread
their intentions."

The tour was organised by the Pilgrim House Foundation, of Inch, Co
Wexford. The pilgrims, 16 Irish and 10 Romanians, had four vehicles and
$300,000 with them when they arrived.

Answers

Do these millennium christian suicidal people know the start of the
Millennium is not
Jan 1, 2000, but Jan 1 2001? If they commit sucide this year,
they really screwed up. Lots of stupid people in this world.